Marriage

On the Feast of the Holy Family we offer all the members of our own families on the altar for God’s blessing. Homily starter anecdote: Grandparents are a treasure: Pope Francis said that as a child, he heard a story of a family with a mother, father, many children and a grandfather. The grandfather, suffering from Parkinson’s [...]

The newly-created John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Matrimonial and Family Sciences on Tuesday released a statement regarding Pope Francis' Motu Proprio Datae summa familiae cura. The Motu Proprio was released on Tuesday, establishing the Institute to carry forward the work of the two recent Synods of Bishops and the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The 'media notes' statement is signed [...]

April 23, 2017, Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday "Christian liturgy is a liturgy of promise fulfilled, of a quest, the religious quest of human history, reaching its goal. But it remains a liturgy of hope. It, too, bears within it the mark of impermanence. The new Temple, not made by human hands, does exist, but it is [...]

December 8, 2016, Thursday -- The Silent Pope "This apostolic exhortation contains a number of statements that can be understood in a sense that is contrary to Catholic faith and morals... We request that the Cardinals and Patriarchs petition the Holy Father to condemn the errors... in a definitive and final manner." —Letter to Cardinal Angelo [...]

Fr. Harrison: “May we believe Francis alone is right, and all his predecessors wrong?” A proper understanding, appreciation and evaluation of Amoris Laetitia will require considerable time, study and prayerful reflection. But it is already quite clear from certain key passages that, with carefully crafted language, plausible arguments and persuasive rhetoric, the Holy Father is [...]

As Apostolic Exhortations go, Amoris Laetitia has been one of the most widely read – and furiously commented upon – in recent memory. Issued following the October 2014 Extraordinary and October 2015 Ordinary Synods on the Family, the document given to the world by Pope Francis is an eloquent meditation on love, marriage and family life. [...]

Pope Francis greets a couple at the end of his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican January 8 (CNS photo/Paul Haring) The language of accompaniment is nothing new to the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, released to the public April 10, nor even to the pontificate of Pope Francis. In his [...]

A moral theologian sets forth a closely reasoned guide to the development of moral doctrine In the exhortation Amoris Lætitia, the most controversial question is the one concerning Communion for the divorced and remarried, which however is never expressly mentioned. It must be noted that above all, in the eighth chapter the language is at times [...]

Pope Francis at the Synod on the Family The “received wisdom” is that the Pope’s document is about Communion for the divorced and remarried, but is it really so? You could be forgiven for having decided that Amoris Laetitia is a failed document. If you accept, as it seems to be the received wisdom [...]

Press conference presenting Pope Francis' Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Amoris laetitia", on love in the family, in the Holy See Press Office. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn O.P., Archbishop of Vienna (Photo Grzegorz Galazka) Cardinal Christoph Schönborn gave the official presentation of the text at the April 8 press conference in Rome. The Pope chose Schönborn for [...]